


Witness

by Hypnos_tized



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Ghost gets a companion, Go to sleep author, Not Beta Read, Quirrel is a ghost, Self-Doubt, Spoilers, Suicide
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 18:22:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29954037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hypnos_tized/pseuds/Hypnos_tized
Summary: Ghost gains a ghostly companion
Relationships: The Knight & Quirrel (Hollow Knight)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 26





	1. Witness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited 3/14/2021: Made the sentences less repetitive, un-boringed it a bit

A ghost slides down a wall, bleeding darkness. Narrowly avoiding a jellyfish that crackles with electricity, they leap from the wall, falling to the soft grass beneath. Queen’s Station, promises the nearby sign. As they enter, they mentally remind themself how tall the room is, and let themself fall to the bottom of the station. Their landing isn’t soft, their dash was too late. They begrudgingly pick themself up, and walk towards a room that contains a bell. A ringing sound fills the tunnels, and the ghost sits on the bench while they wait. 

The sound of a large bug running becomes louder and louder, until The Last Stag stops next to the bell. Ghost stands up, walks towards the stag, and pulls their map out of one of their arms. Opening it, they show it to the stag, and point to the station in the Resting Grounds. The stag nods, and Ghost jumps onto the stag, holding on tight. 

The ride isn’t the smoothest, but Ghost finds such high speeds enjoyable. A yet-to-be-familiar station comes into view, and they brace themself. The stag slows down, the change in momentum pushing Ghost forward, but they hang on. When they come to a stop, Ghost leaps off, landing on the raised platform. Looking back at the stag, they wave, then rest on the nearby bench. 

Ghost exits the station, and fall to the bottom of the room, making a loud thump when they land. Leaping up, they check the layout of the area, and run forwards into the next room. Quickly they run, enjoying the feeling of air rush past them as they jump onto the platform with the tablet listing the dreamers. Glancing at it, they mentally mark Monomon off the list. 

They feel excited about defeating their first dreamer. Uumuu, the giant jellyfish that guarded the archives, was difficult at first, but became fun when they learned how to dodge it’s attacks. It was also nice to see Quirrel, they were happy that their friend got some of his memories back. They pondered their next encounter with him. 

He said that he wanted to see the source of the rain in the City of Tears, so they decided to head to the Blue Lake. Cornifer often left behind lots of paper, so they‘d put some in their inventory. They planned on using it to draw the lake, so that when they next saw Quirrel, he would know what it looked like. Excited to give their friend a gift, see his surprise, they dropped into the lower portion of the Resting Grounds. Ghost fell to the bottom, then ran towards the lake. Their surroundings opened up and, oh, that’s where Quirrel ran off to. Hi Quirrel!

He says something, but they don’t entirely remember what he says. Something about it made them feel at peace. So do his thoughts when they swing their Dreamnail at him. Ghost sits next to him for a while, enjoying his companionship. The lake is so calm, they like looking at the slow, subtle movements of the water. They will return here, they think. Life is stressful, and their friend is right here to enjoy the peace with them. Sketching the lake pointless, they decide, it’s better to see the lake itself. 

Eventually, they get up, they can only spend so much time here. Thank you, Quirrel, for letting me rest here. They understand why spirits like this area so much. Crystal Dashing across the lake, they can hear the force of the movement brushing the water below. Landing, they reconsider their route, so they dash back. They climb back up, run, climb to the stag station, and sit on the bench there. 

They remember that they wanted to give Quirrel a gift, and get up from where they sat. Drop, run, drop, back to the lake. Entering the room, they only find Quirrel’s nail, stuck in the ground, it’s owner nowhere to be found.


	2. Companion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quirrel died, so why is he still here?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited 3/14/2021: Made sentences sound less repetitive, changed wording a bit

Quirrel was aware that something… changed. Everything was dark, and he couldn’t feel anything. Not here, need to go somewhere else, somewhere he could see. And his surroundings changed, just like that. Next to him was the Blue Lake, the source of the water in the city of tears. He wasn’t touching the ground. Huh. 

The cavern’s walls, over there, and he drifted towards them. This area was quite pretty, but he needed to figure out what was happening. Recent memories… underwater, by choice. Drowning himself. But he’s still here. He should be with Monomon. 

Looking over to where he left his nail, he remembers. He’d said once, that the dead shouldn’t be burdened with such things. That’s why he didn’t have his nail on him. If he’s still here, he’ll probably need it, so he goes to pick it up. It went through him, or more accurately, he went through it. Seems like he’d missed his chance. Oh well, he didn’t need it anyway. Back to the wall he goes.

He stares at the lake for a while, trying to figure out what to do, then his short companion(?) enters, holding some sort of pale flower. They set the delicate-looking flower next to his nail. Quirrel watches as they stand there, looking at it, shaking. An unusual occurrence, he drifts over to investigate. 

“Thank you, friend.” He says. The small bug(?) looks at him, and he sees the darkness in their eyes. It’s moving. They can’t cry. Oh, they’d be crying right now. In an attempt to comfort them, he offers a hug, and they accept. It finally sinks in. Quirrel is dead. The little wanderer can see him. Impossible, at least it should be, but his friend is a strange one. 

He stops hugging them, and drifts backwards. “I never caught your name, friend.” Friend, huh. A piece of paper is pulled out of their.. arm. Right, that’s normal for them. They produce a quill and write their name on the paper. Ghost, a strangely fitting name for them. 

“Well Ghost, we should probably get going. It seems like I have unfinished business.”

Ghost nods, they’re no longer shaking. The darkness of their eyes is still. Good. Crystals form, launching Ghost over the lake, somehow, but Quirrel can finally follow. He gets the feeling that, even if he didn’t try, something would’ve dragged him along anyway. 

They enter the Forgotten Crossroads. Or, what was once the Forgotten Crossroads. Some unknown sense tells him that he’s entering the Infected Crossroads, instead. Ghost looks around nervously, clearly not expecting this. The small creature falls off of the ledge, landing next to a building with pink fog drifting out. Landing on a bench, they adjust themself so that they’re sitting, and pull out their map. 

Having found whatever they were looking for, they put it away, and stand up. Terrified, they run, Quirrel keeping up with them. Past all the terrifying, enraged seeming bugs. A leaping husk throws orange goop at them. A giant, desperate vengefly chases them. They keep running, abandoning their normal tendency to fight everything in their way. 

Quirrel flees with them. They finally reach the stag station, and Ghost hurriedly pulls out their map. Bell ringing, they frantically search the map, show it to the arriving stag, and point to King’s Station. A nod, no further confirmation needed, and Ghost hops onto the back of the Stag, who starts running. Quirrel drifts behind.


	3. Helpful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To the Ancient Basin we go!

Ghost isn’t returning to the crossroads unless it’s absolutely necessary. For now, at least. For now, they’re heading to the royal waterways. Specifically, they want to check out somewhere that they briefly Crystal Dashed through. It was a different color than the rest of the waterways, so there must be something there. 

It was nice to have Quirrel with them. They weren’t sure what they were gonna do when they saw that he had died. He seemed so happy about the flower they gave him! They looked behind them and there he was. He waved, and they waved back. He seemed a little unused to floating around like this, but he’ll get the hang of it. 

They arrived at King’s Station, and they hopped off of the stag. They looked at the stag, waved, and sat on the bench. They hurried out of the room, dropped down, and ran out of the station. They jumped and dashed over the infected guards and citizens. They leaped up, down, over the guard, and into the Royal Waterways. 

There is a large, vertical room. A few platforms, a couple flying sentries, many, many spikes. They choose a spot, and leap down, past the sentries, onto a platform near the spikes. They carefully fall from platform to platform, narrowly avoiding the spikes. Eventually, they are far enough down that they aren’t in danger of being impaled, and fall to the bottom. 

They stand up, and walk forward, into a hole in the wall. There is a whispering root, they mark it on their map using one of the pins they bought. They leave the hole, and go into the room on the other side. This room is long, with larger platforms about a jump and a dash apart, with smaller platforms in between. There are several flying sentries. 

Quirrel has caught up with them. “You could probably cross without fighting, if you’re quick enough.” he says. Ghost agrees. They wait a moment longer, then leap forward. Jump, dash, jump, dash. They narrowly avoid the sentries’ attacks. Jump, dash, jump, dash, until they reach a more enclosed area. A horned husk runs forward, they jump over it, and it falls. They run, jump, and two sentries have caught up with them. 

They slice their nail through them, managing to kill the sentries, but taking a couple hits. They use the soul they gained from the battle to fully heal themself. They drop into the following area, falling through a hole in the bottom. They land, pick themselves up, and look around. A tram station, and they’re no longer in the Royal Waterways. 

They take a moment to rest, and Quirrel catches up with them. They stand in silence for a moment, before jumping into the nearby hole. They stick to one side of the room, carefully falling while avoiding the unfamiliar enemies. They enter a room that contains a fountain. 

The fountain room had a large king’s idol, and is surrounded by corpses that cry black. The fountain asks them to give it their geo, for the king, it says. They don’t. They leave the room, and when they exit, a voice whispers, “The Ancient Basin.” Next to them, Quirrel looks around, searching for the source of the voice. They don’t, this usually happens when they enter an area. 

They hear the familiar sound of Cornifer’s humming. They drop down, entering a room filled with paper. Cornifer says something, and asks for geo. They give him some, around a hundred or so, like usual. He fills out some of their map. They leave. They drop to the big room’s floor, and see a platform too high for them to reach. 

They turn around, and jump, dash over a couple pits of untamed spikes. In the next room, they find a toll machine that promises a bench. They give it their remaining geo, and wait for the bench to unfold. They look over to where Quirrel is floating. He’s looking around, observing the large pit of spikes. They spot a pile of geo in the distance. 

They sit on the bench that now rests there. They fill out part of their map. They stand up, concentrate, and Crystal Dash as soon as it’s charged. They race over the spike pit, Quirrel just behind them. They stop on the platform with the geo, smack it until they can collect everything that didn’t fall, and Crystal dash again, ramming headfirst into a wall of sharp, untamed spikes. 

Their mask is thoroughly cracked, and their shade emerges. They wake up, thankful that there was a bench nearby, and Crystal Dash again. They try to stop before the spikes, but they’re too late, there goes all their geo. They try again and again, too early, too late, and Quirrel finally stops them. 

He picks them up, his hands underneath Ghost’s armpits, and carries them over the pit, gently dropping them on the other side. They look at him. He looks back. They turn around, and jump onto the platform that was guarded by the spikes. He follows them, happy that he can help them. He’s glad that he remembered he can interact with them. He keeps this information for later, he’ll definitely need it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehe 2021 words


	4. Useless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quirrel feels lost

Quirrel feels lost. He’s here, with Ghost, and he can’t do anything. He can talk to Ghost, he can look around, and that’s it. He can no longer make any impact on the world. Ghost doesn’t need his help for anything, but they’re stuck with him. He’d offered Ghost some advice when entering this area, but Ghost probably didn’t need it. 

He watches Ghost launch themself over the spike pit, drifting behind them. He can’t even keep up with them. He watches, helpless, as Ghost smacks into the spikes, their mask shattering. He winces. Out comes some black creature that looks like Ghost. He moves to investigate, but is quickly pulled back to the bench where Ghost now rests. 

Ghost creates crystals once again, shattering them and blasting off into the distance, pulling Quirrel along with them. Quirrel wonders how they do that. Smack, into the spikes again. The dark creature disappears and reforms. Quirrel is snapped back to the bench. Back and forth, too early, too late, and he stops them. They seem frustrated. 

He picks them up, he can interact with them, and carries them over the spike pit. They look at him, then kill the dark creature, which seems to go into them. They leap up, above the spikes that were now covered in mask fragments. They went on, into the area ahead. 

The new area is odd, Quirrel thinks. Dark crawlers, with orange eyes. Orange lifeblood seeds. And now, giant creatures that spit orange goop everywhere. Ghost tried to kill one, but it wouldn’t die and they took too much damage for it to be worth it. Ghost hurried past a few, getting more and more injured. They went down into an area below, retrieving a simple key from a corpse. 

By the time they got past the spitters, they were bleeding darkness. Quirrel was worried, he wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but Ghost was frantic. Ghost found a shortcut back to the bench. They killed some dark crawlers, and did some weird thing that made them stop bleeding shadow. They seemed relieved, and so was Quirrel, but they were still cautious. 

They went onward, until there was a corpse that looked very similar to Ghost. Orange lifeblood seeds entered the hole in it’s head, until there were large globs of orange. The corpse got up, and started attacking Ghost. Ghost evaded it’s attacks pretty well, but got hit. Orange floaters were appearing, and one caught Ghost when they tried to… heal? Ghost began bleeding shadow again. 

One hit from the corpse’s weapon was all it took to break their mask. So that’s what that means. Quirrel saw a dark clone of Ghost appear, and was violently tugged back to the bench. 

Ghost sat there for a minute, so Quirrel asked, “What are those dark clones of you that appear when your mask breaks?” Ghost pulled out their paper and answered, a name along with a small drawing. A shade, Quirrel had heard brief mentions of such a thing. 

“Do you want me to carry you again?” 

Ghost pauses for a moment, and nods. Quirrel picks them up, and carries them over the pit. At least there’s something he can do for his friend. They eventually find their shade, killing it in three slices. They run back to the corpse, fighting it, and killing it this time. Maybe killing isn’t the right word, since it was already dead. 

Ghost enters the room that the corpse was blocking, and drops down quite a distance. They walk forward, and find some wings. Quirrel wonders what they’ll do with them, and watches as ghost absorbs them into their body. Ghost jumps, then sprouts their newly acquired wings. They jump again, and flap their wings. They play with them for a while, before heading back towards the corpse’s room, back towards the bench. 

Ghost dashes across, going the opposite direction that they previously went. They make it this time, and Quirrel mentally checks off the only item in his usefulness list. They go back into the room filled with dark crawlers, to the ledge that was previously too high for Ghost to reach. 

I could have lifted them up there, Quirrel realizes. Oh well, I’m probably not strong enough to do that anyway. I’m not even used to moving like this. Ghost just drags me along, since I can’t even keep up with them. I could try, though. 

Ghost does their crystalline dash, and Quirrel attempts to keep up with them. He’s more successful than before. They stop when they find some dead… something. Ghost uses their glowing nail on it, but nothing seems to happen. Ghost seems confused, and tries it a couple more times. Nothing. They move on. 

They once again stop at a pair of corpses, Ghost using their glowing nail on them. Whatever they were trying to do seems to work this time. Ghost does it again, seems satisfied, then crystal dashes onwards. Crystal dash, that’s a good way to refer to it. They find a stag station. 

While waiting for the stag to arrive, Ghost sits on the bench and pulls out their map. Benches seem pretty significant to Ghost, especially since that’s where they go when their mask breaks. Maybe that’s why they sat next to him for so long at the City of Tears. And the Blue Lake, he adds. 

When the stag arrives, they once again pull out their map. They show it to the stag, and point to King’s Station. The stag nods, they get on, and Quirrel does his best to keep up. He’s close. He’s getting better at this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In goes an idea, out comes angst. Oops.


	5. Answers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They rest at the lake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written text is in parentheses

Ghost hops off the stag, then thinks. They pull out their map, and point to the Resting Grounds. The stag nods, and they’re on their way. Quirrel drifts behind them, closer this time. He seems a bit less lost. A little. They arrive. 

They briefly sit on the bench, then run to the Blue Lake. Quirrel’s right behind them. They look at him, he looks at them. They trip. Quirrel grabs their arm. He helps Ghost back up, and they continue running. He’s right beside them. They drop down. He’s a little behind now, but he quickly catches up. They run to the spot where he left his nail. The flower is still there. 

They sit down, and pull out their paper and quill. They look expectantly at him. He thinks. They write. 

(You look happier)

“I am. I’ve found some sort of purpose in death.”

(You have questions. Ask them)

“How can you see me?”

They pull out their Dreamnail, and show it to him. 

(This is the Dreamnail. It lets me interact with the dead and the dreaming. It’s how I killed Monomon)

“Oh.”

The two of them sit for a while, looking over the lake. It’s peaceful, but that peace isn’t meant for them right now. Even so, they rest. They get up, and sit next to Quirrel. They rest their head on him, and dream. 

They dream of white, all around them. A King’s mark. Darkness, a sea of their dead kin. An ocean of black, lashing out at them. Light, calming it. Drenching themself in a bowl of liquid shadow. A shriek, a sound, from them. They know what they must do, where they must go.

**Author's Note:**

> No Longer helped me with some idea generation (like Quirrel helping Ghost fly)  
> https://archiveofourown.org/users/No_longer_a_sloth/pseuds/No_longer_a_sloth   
> (I don’t know how to do links)


End file.
